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Riku
“''Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!” ―Riku '''Riku' is the deuteragonist in the Kingdom Hearts series. A teenager from the Destiny Islands, Riku is the cool and confident best friend of Sora and Kairi. When the heartless raid their peaceful island and send each on a separate journey, Riku's curiosity compels him to take an unknown path, eventually falling into the Darkness by the influence of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. He then becomes an antagonist for much of the game. Eventually learning the error of his ways and returning to his friends, Riku becomes good once again, and now uses his gifts to aid his friends wherever possible. He is voiced by David Gallagher in the English version and by Mamoru Miyano in the Japanese version. Personality Riku's personality is as strong as the land for which he was named. He is very strong-willed and confident, at times being arrogant. He values his friends deeply and puts protecting them above all else. Riku is very competitive, and spent his childhood playing games, play-fighting and racing with Sora. This competitiveness also made him easy to become jealous, especially during Kingdom Hearts, where he becomes very irked that Sora received the powers of the Keyblade while he did not, though he is not immediately vocal about it. This jealousy led him to behave aggressively to the people most important to him, and he began to act recklessly and harshly in an attempt to prove himself. He loses this childish jealousy streak entirely as he grows older. He has a had an intense curiosity about the world he lives in (and what lies beyond it) ever since he met the foreign Terra as a child. His desire to know more became to consume him somewhat negatively over time. He has no qualms with going through the unknown to earn this knowledge, willingly stepping into a dark portal with an unknown destination, simply because he knew it may be his only chance to leave. After he does finally see other worlds, this desire subsides, and he finds comfort in his once-restricting island homeworld. After the events of Kingdom Hearts, Riku becomes humbled, learning from the reckless mistakes he had made, and seeks to make amends. He becomes much more affable and mellows out. He has learned well from his mistakes in siding with darkness, and becomes wise and well-versed enough to become a Keyblade Master that Yen Sid can rely on. Powers and Abilities When Terra approached Riku during Riku's childhood, Terra gave Riku the ability to use the Keyblade. Before leaving Destiny Islands, he has trained himself, along with Sora, to use a weapon, more specifically a sword. As the island was being engulfed in shadows, Riku was about to receive the Keyblade. However, he left too soon, and it came into the possession of Sora. Before the two crossed paths again, Riku gained the ability to manifest a sword called the Soul Eater. Through Maleficent, Riku possessed the ability to control and create Heartless. This was demonstrated when Riku made a Heartless replica of Sora in Neverland. In Hollow Bastion, Maleficent gave Riku the ability to use the darkness within him, further weakening his heart after he teleported to Hollow Bastion using the darkness. After losing to Sora and being possessed by the Seeker of Darkness, he saw the error of his ways, and swore off his dark powers. He struggled with the darkness within him for a time, but with encouragement from Naminé, he regained control, and was able to wield the darkness along with the light. Late in the events of Kingdom Hearts II, his Soul Eater evolved in form to the Way to the Dawn Keyblade.